Changing metaphors in social psychology of public action: From intervention to involvement

Abstract

The notion of psychosocial intervention has become a common place in social psychology and related disciplines seeking to put the knowledge into practice in concrete social projects. Its widespread and ordinary use has helped this notion, as a discursive dispositive for conceiving and organizing action, to escape almost entirely from theoretical problematisation and critical reflection. In this paper I examine the notion of intervention through the lens of metaphor and analyze its implications for the conception and construction of the practices to which it refers. Afterward I suggest involvement as an alternative metaphor that moves away from the interventionist logic of action and helps us to think action in a different frame, which includes three aspects: the professional/researcher position in the social scenario, the relation between the actors, and conception of knowledge and action in a social transformation project.